Around the CHL

By League Press Release

December 20th, 2001

Once again this year, the best junior hockey players in the world will be ondisplay at the World Junior Hockey Championships and therefore once again,so will the top stars from the Canadian Hockey League.

The final roster for Canada’s National Junior Team was announced on theweekend and of the 22 players on the team, 21 of them are Canadian HockeyLeague players. The breakdown of Team Canada: 10 players are from theWestern Hockey League, nine players are from the Ontario Hockey League, twoplayers are from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and there is oneplayer from the U.S. college ranks.

The World Junior Hockey Championship will be held from Dec. 25, 2001 toJanuary 4, 2002 in the Czech Republic. Numerous other CHL import players arealso participating in the event on teams from other countries.

All of Team Canada’s games from the World Junior Hockey Championship will bebroadcast live on TSN. Team Canada plays two exhibition games, Dec. 20(against Liberec, a Czech Republic Division 1 team) and on Dec. 22 (againstFinland), before opening the World Junior Hockey Championship tournamentChristmas Day against France.

You can also follow the exploits of Team Canada at www.canadianhockey.ca,which will contain up to date information on the WJHC throughout the event.

At Kamloops, Keegan McAvoy scored a pair of goals for the winners, includingthe game-winner, before 5,201 fans. Aaron Bader added a pair of goals forSeattle, which out-shot Kamloops 26-21. At Prince Albert, Paul Denisetscored the game-winning goal at 8:48 of the third period to give the homeside the win. Jon Kress added one goal and one assist to the Prince Albertattack while Ryan Cuthbert had one goal and one assist for the losers.Thomas Vicars was outstanding in goal for Prince Albert, making 52 saveswhile Shane Bendera made his debut in goal for Kelowna.

At Saskatoon, Regina’s Matt Hubbauer and Saskatoon’s Trent Adamus exchangedfirst period goals in the tie. Chad Davidson made 29 saves in the Reginagoal while Michael Garnett stopped 26 shots for the Blades. At Brandon,Jordin Tootoo scored the game-winning goal in the third period to spark theWheat Kings, who out-shot the visitors 43-19. Kyle Kettles made 41 saves forMoose Jaw to keep the game close.

ONTARIO HOCKEY LEAGUE

There are five games on the OHL’s Thursday night schedule. Owen Sound is inBarrie (5), Sault Ste. Marie (7) is at Brampton, Kingston plays inPeterborough, Oshawa travels to Toronto St. Michael’s and London plays atWindsor.

At Belleville, Greg Chambers scored twice and added one assist to lead thePetes past the Bulls. He also scored the game-winning goal, breaking a 3-3tie, at 14:30 of the third period. OHL scoring leader Nathan Robinson hadone goal and one assist for Belleville, while Mike Renzi picked up a pair ofassists.

At Erie, Cory Pecker had one goal and two assists while Chris Berti andChris Eade both had one goal and one assist, to lead the Otters past the IceDogs. Matt Passfield had one goal and one assist for the losers while AdamMunro made 30 saves in the Erie goal.

At Owen Sound, Ray Emery made 36 saves to post the shutout in the Greyhounds victory. Jeff Richards had one goal and three assists for the winnerswhile Mike Nelson scored twice and added one assist.

QUEBEC MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE

There are two games in the QMJHL on Thursday night. Montreal travels toVal-d’Or while Chicoutimi plays in Victoriaville.

On Wednesday night in the QMJHL, Halifax and Montreal played to a 3-3 tie,Rouyn-Noranda defeated Cape Breton 7-3, Baie-Comeau upset Acadie-Bathurst(1) 4-1 and Quebec got by Rimouski 3-2.

At Montreal, Michael Lambert and Jerome Bergeron both had one goal and twoassists to lead the Rocket, while Jonathan Cayer made 39 saves. Halifaxout-shot Montreal 42-19, with Dany Dallaire making 16 saves in theMooseheads goal.

At Rouyn-Noranda, Marc-Andre Binette had two goals and one assist whileSebastien Lapierre added one goal and two assists for the Huskies. MathieuPoitras made 32 saves for the winners, while Stephen Dixon had one goal andone assist for Cape Breton.

At Baie-Comeau, Benoit Mondou had two goals and one assist while CharlesLinglet added one goal and one assist for the winners. Ghyslain Rousseauonly had to make 11 saves for Baie-Comeau in goal, with only JonathanFerland managing to score for the number one ranked Titan.

At Quebec, Sebastien Thinel had one goal and one assist for the Rempartswhile Michel Ouellet added one goal and one assist for Rimouski. KevinLachance made 39 saves in goal for Quebec while Eric Salvail made 37 savesfor the losers.